


Switch-A-Roo

by ObliviousBlondes_Unite



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Kwami Swap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-09-18 01:21:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16985433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObliviousBlondes_Unite/pseuds/ObliviousBlondes_Unite
Summary: It's been two years since the fight with Hawkmoth began, and they're getting close to fighting him. Adrien and Marinette have been fighting like absolute champs, so Plagg decides to push for some fun. It's been about a century since the last kwami swap. It's about time for another one.





	1. The Deal

**Author's Note:**

> I'm planning on having about 11 chapters in this fic. It might end up being more than that. I do not have an update schedule, so if I don't post for a while, don't be worried. I do not intend on letting this AU go unfinished.

Before Dark Owl, Plagg and Tikki had suspicions on who the other was with. Dark Owl only confirmed their suspicions. So, after Dark Owl, seeing as Tikki was right behind his holder during school, he decides to make the most out of the situation. Ever since Dark Owl, Plagg and Tikki have snuck into either Marinette’s or Adrien’s bag to talk the school day away. When an akuma would appear, Plagg’s hackles raise, and Tikki knows to zip back to Marinette’s bag so they can be ready to head to combat.

After Troublemaker Adrien and Marinette talked to their respective kwamis about making it harder for anyone to take the miraculous. Adrien asked Plagg to change the suit slightly. He asked to, while transformed, have a strap extend from his glove though the ring band and submerge into the underside of his finger. Marinette asked Tikki to change the appearance of the miraculous slightly while both transformed and detransformed. She asked to have the earrings while detransformed have a stem to go through pierced ears, and to have a retractable bar at the end of the stem to keep the earring secure. While transformed, she asks Tikki to have ladybug wings extend from the sides of each earring and bend into the stem of the earring. Plagg starts to pester Tikki about letting them reveal their identities to each other.

“No, Plagg. It’s too dangerous, now more than ever!” Tikki says in response to Plagg’s fifth plea of identity reveal that day.

“C’mon Sugarcube!” He whines “it’ll be good for the kid. He needs someone who can and will care for and love him.”

“It’s not my choice to make.” Tikki would always say to end the conversation.

After Mayura, Plagg steps up the frequency he would ask.

“Tiiiiiikkiiiiiii.” He whines “c’mon! They got this close to defeating hawkmoth. When they do, there won’t be much reason for them to keep the miraculous. Fu will insist that they return them!” He watches as Tikki looks at him, and sighs for the tenth time that day. He smirks when Tikki takes a deep breath, he knows he finally got to her.

“Plagg, I’m not going to force the reveal. But you do bring up some good points. I can talk to Marinette, but I can’t promise anything.” Tikki says, finally agreeing with him.

“Okay…” Plagg trails off, a small smile growing on his lips. Tikki backs away from Plagg slightly, as she is growing increasingly creeped out by his smile. “You know what? Don’t ask for the reveal. A swap would be much better.”

“Plagg, no. It’s been what? A century since we last did that. Fu didn’t approve of it then, and he won’t now.” She chastises him.

“Eh, who cares for what Fu approves of. We’re gods. We know better.” He says, waving off her concern.

“Dinosaurs.” Tikki replies shortly and dryly.

Plagg goes wide eyed at that.

“Anyway” He clears his tiny throat. “He chose them, they know what they’re doing. Just bring up the subject of a kwami swap and tell her what I told you about the time frame.”

“Plagg, no. End of discussion.” She turns around and is about to phase through the bag when Plagg starts talking.

“Tikki, we may not have much time with them. They’ve been focused on school and fighting Hawkmoth. They are the youngest holders we’ve ever had, and they shouldn’t have to be going through this at all. Even though they are the youngest, they fight like they’ve been doing this for decades. Let them have some fun.” He says, his voice soft and tender. “Please?”

“Okay,” She turns around and floats to Plagg to hug him. “Okay, I’ll talk to her.” She pulls away to look him in the eyes and she sees a tear fall down his cheek. “Hey, you know we don’t have to give them up, right?” She asks, brushing the tear from his furry cheek.

“Yeah…” he sniffs, “It’s just they’re too young to realize that they don’t have to give us up, they’re also such sticklers for the rules and stupid teenagers.”

Tikki, pulls him in for another hug. “I’ll talk to her, about both of those, Okay?”

“Yeah,” he sniffs once more. “Now stop talking, you’re making me cry, and someone’s going to hear.”

She pulls away from him, an incredulous look on her face. “Plagg, you started this conversation, and crying on your own. I had nothing to do with it.”

“Shh, of course you did. You were stubborn and made me show me emotions to get you to agree. It was bound to happen.” He says, narrowing his eyes. “Don’t tell anyone. Anyone.”

“I won’t.” She says, although she is already planning out her conversation with Marinette and it just so happens that Plagg’s emotions play a big part in persuading her. “I won’t.”

“So, how long are we going to swap? It won’t be like last time, right? Tikki suddenly asks 

“No, definitely not like last time. Just for a week.” Plagg responds shaking his head at the past 2 yearlong kwami swap. “Definitely not like last time.”

* * *

 

Tikki pops out of Marinette’s purse after a few minutes of silence. “Hey, what are you thinking about?” Tikki asks.

Marinette looks down at her kwami and shakes her head. “Nothing, I was just zoning out a bit.”

“Oh, okay.” Tikki looks around to see that she is sitting in front of her computer. Homework spread out, but no problems started. “Well, if you’re not going to work on homework now, can I talk to you about something?” Tikki asks floating up out of the purse and settling down on the desk in front of Marinette.

“Sure, what is it?” Marinette asks in slight intrigue.

“Well, I’ve just been thinking. Um… I know I told you not to reveal your identity to Chat Noir, and I’m not asking you to.” Tikki adds quickly when Marinette opens her mouth to say something. “It’s just, you’re getting close to defeating Hawkmoth…”  Tikki trails off, becoming nervous.

“Yeah, I think we’re getting close.” Marinette says, looking at Tikki in confusion because Tikki hasn’t ever been this nervous talking to her, it’s usually Marinette that is a nervous wreck.

“Well, you are our youngest pair of holders we’ve had, and you are fighting like absolute champs. I was just thinking that maybe you should have a bit of fun?” Tikki says, fiddling with her paws.

“What do you mean by fun?” Marinette inquires, furrowing her brows.

“Well, occasionally, Plagg and I switch holders for a bit.” Tikki looks up to see a look of alarm on Marinette’s face. “It’s only a week, I promise!” She adds on quickly.

“Um. Doesn’t that require us to know each other’s identities?” She says, standing up and starts to pace the room.

“Not exactly. I don’t want to force anything, it’s just you deserve a bit of fun. I’m sure you and Chat can figure something out. You’re quite smart and good at thinking up quick, strong plans.” Tikki says, floating up eyes locked on the floor.

“I don’t know Tikki. It seems too risky.” Marinette says, dropping down onto her chaise.

“Um. I should have told you this, but I have been talking to Plagg recently…” she inwardly cringes when she hears alarmed rustling from the chaise. “I didn’t want to say this, but Plagg practically begged me to ask you. He’s worried about his holder, and you. He just wants you guys to live the life you deserve. Like the kids you are.” Tikki looks up to see that Marinette is sitting on the chaise, her back mostly straight from shock, but shoulders slumped, and eyes soft.

“Okay. I’ll do it. For, Plagg, right? She says, looking into Tikki’s eyes.

“Yeah, that’s his name. Thank you, Marinette. You’ll make him happy! Really happy. Don’t worry, you’ll do just great.” She says, zipping over to hug her holder’s cheek.

“A few things first. One) what does Plagg like to eat? And Two) what does he like?”

Tikki giggles at her questions. “Well, he likes to eat cheese. A lot of cheese. He’s a cat kwami. So basically, almost whatever cats like. You might want to ask Chat Noir for specifics.”

“Wow, lucky for him, I live in a bakery.” Marinette says, shooting Tikki finger guns and a wink.

……

Plagg blows out a frustrated breath. Adrien has been way too busy for him to talk about the kwami swap. He had fencing immediately after school, then he had a photoshoot 30 minutes after that. He barely had time to shower and get another stash of camembert before he had to leave to the photoshoot.

When they got home, Adrien had a late, and lonely (as always) dinner, then headed up to bed. He closed the door, locked it, set his bag on the ground, let Plagg out of his jacket, got Plagg a slice of camembert and headed to the shower to wash off all the makeup and hair product.

“Hey, kid. I wanna talk to you about something.” Plagg says when Adrien walked out of the shower, toweling off his hair and raising a questioning eyebrow at the slice of un eaten camembert sitting in Plagg’s paws.

“Sure, what is it?” Adrien says, shrugging his shoulders when Plagg narrows his eyes at Adrien’s raised eyebrow and turning to his dresser to get his pajamas.

“Well. I’ve been talking to Tikki lately.” Plagg starts, nonchalantly. Adrien freezes in the middle of pulling on his pajama shirt.

“What?” He asks, pulling the shirt the rest of the way down.

“Yeah, and I’ve been thinking. You should totally do a kwami swap.” Plagg says, finally taking a bite of the camembert.

“Wait, don’t do that! You just said you’ve been talking to Tikki. Who’s Tikki? And what’s a kwami swap?” Adrien asks, throwing his hands in the air, and pacing his room.

“Tikki. The ladybug kwami. I thought you already knew this?”

“You’ve been talking to Ladybug’s Kwami! When? How? When?”

“A kwami swap is when we, me and Tikki, switch holders for an amount of time.”

“Plagg. Answer me! When? How? Why?”

“When, after Dark Owl.”

“Dark Owl! That was months ago!”

“How, we hide in your bag at school.”

“WHAT?!”

“Why, school is boring, and I need to talk to someone.”

“Ugh, why’d I have to get you?” Adrien asks, plopping down on his couch.

“You know you love me. Plus, you had no say in it. Fu chose you.” Plagg says, taking another bite of cheese.

 

“Plagg.” Adrien says, standing from the couch.

“Anyway,” Plagg says, clearing his throat. “You’re a kid. You deserve some fun. You’ve been fighting Hawkmoth for a while and it’s getting boring.”

“Plagg.” Adrien says again, walking towards Plagg.

“It’ll be fun! C’mon!” Plagg says, backing away from Adrien.

“Okay, fine.” Adrien relents, but a smile creeps onto his face and it’s creeping Plagg out. “On one condition.”

“Okay…” Plagg trails off, holding out the slice of camembert to fend Adrien off.

“You have to spend some more time with me, and sleep on that cat bed I got you a while ago.” Adrien says, pointing a finger at Plagg. 

“You know, that’s not that bad of a deal.” Plagg says, gulping the rest of the cheese and shaking Adrien’s finger.

* * *

 

“Okay, so Adrien agreed to the swap, what about Marinette?” Plagg says, after phasing into Marinette’s bag.

“She agreed.” Tikki says, looking up from her cookie.

“Okay, so when do you want to make the switch?” Plagg asks, settling down across from Tikki at the other side of the cookie. Like it was a table.

“Well, it’s only Thursday. I say we make the switch on Saturday.” Tikki says, rubbing a chocolate chip chunk that is poking up from the surface of the cookie.

“Okay, Sugarcube. Saturday it is. From Saturday to Saturday. No going back. -“ Plagg is cut off from whatever he was going to say by his hackles raising and ears perking.

“Well, looks like there’s an akuma. Time to get back to Adrien.” Tikki says, shooing Plagg from the cookie. 

“Make sure to tell her that we should switch on Saturday, but the rest of it is up to them. Got it?” Plagg says, before phasing out of the bag and back into Adrien’s.


	2. the Switch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talking with Plagg and Tikki, Adrien and Marinette agree to making the switch happen sooner rather than later. After an akuma attack, Ladybug and Chat Noir decide to talk to eachother about the switch. Then the switch happens, and its a sight to see.

The akuma had been hard. Ladybug and Chat Noir arrived, listened to the akuma rant about why they’re doing what they’re doing, and shout for their miraculous. Chat Noir quipped back like normal, and honestly Plagg could care less. They fought the akuma and won, that’s all that mattered. Mostly, it took a few tries to take it down, that meant at least two transformations, and a few hours in suit. It was exhausting.

After the akuma attack, Chat Noir headed home, and detransformed. Plagg spiraled out of the ring and settled down on Adrien’s head.

“Tikki and I talked again. We think it would be best to make the switch on Saturday.” Plagg says around a yawn. “I’m hungry, and tired. We should sleep.”

“Do you have an idea about when on Saturday we should make the switch?” Adrien asks, crouching down and grabbing a slice of camembert.

“Nope, and we won’t make that decision. That is for you and your lady to decide.” Plagg states, reaching lazily for the cheese that Adrien is handing up to him.

“Okay, please, don’t get camembert in my hair.” Adrien pleads around a yawn.

“I’ll do my best, kid.” Plagg says around his own yawn. “Stop yawning, you’re making me yawn, and then you’ll yawn, and it’s a chain reaction.”

“Okay.” Adrien replies, plopping down onto the bed face first, sending Plagg flying with a small Yelp.

 

……

 

Tikki spiraled out of the earrings and onto Marinette’s outstretched hand. Tikki takes the cookie offered to her gratefully and started to bite as big chunks out of it as she could.

Marinette sets Tikki down on a pillow on her bed, and then proceeds to plop down onto it. The akuma had been difficult. This akuma was like a mixture of Trouble maker, and Vanisher. They were either intangible or invisible at any given time. Tikki doesn’t remember the name of it though. It took two transformations from ladybug, and three from Chat Noir. They were in their transformations for a few hours at a time. It took from lunch to just after 21:00 to take it down. They were both exhausted, as would Adrien and Plagg.

“Marinette.” Tikki inquires groggily.

“Hmmmmm” comes Marinette’s sleepy reply.

“What do you think of making the switch on Saturday?”

“‘Hats ‘ine.” Is Marinette’s muffled reply.

“Okay, just sleep. You can talk to Chat tomorrow.”

* * *

 

Adrien woke up at the usual time and arrives at school as usual. Unlike usual, he keeps nodding off during class. Also, unlike usual, He noticed that Marinette didn’t get to school until it was almost lunch.

Adrien decides to ask Nino to grab notes for him, so he doesn’t have to worry about missing things, while he’s trying to stay awake.

Nino agrees of course, and Adrien can’t help but notice that Marinette has her head buried in her arms. Looks like she didn’t get much sleep last night.

After school Adrien just barely made it to his room when the Ladyblog reports another akuma attack.

Adrien releases and heavy sigh and looks into his jacket pocket to see Plagg staring up at him.

“Another Akuma?” Plagg asks, floating up out of his pocket.

“Yeah. Sorry.” Adrien says, then calls for his transformation and jumps through his window.

He lands on the roof opposite of him and listens for the screams.

After a few seconds, he hears screams from the far north, and starts vaulting toward them.

When he gets close, he lands on a roof and looks around. People are screaming and running around everywhere. Well, some are. Some are taking heavy naps on the ground.

He looks over across the roofs to try to find Ladybug.

He sees her overlooking the block, leaning against a chimney.

He vaults over to her and is delighted to know that he is still as silent as ever. He taps her shoulder and she lets out an adorable squeak as she whips around.

Her face was priceless. And he can’t help but let out a hearty laugh. She smacks his shoulder playfully as she calms down.

“Okay, my lady. What’s going on here?” He asks, standing by her side, overlooking the block.

“Well, this one is a little weird. You see those plants?” She points to the plants that are surrounding the napping people. “They’re coming from the akuma. Don’t go near them. They make you sleepy.” She finishes, poking his chest.

“Looks like the plants don’t need to try. You’re already sleepy. Did you stay up all night thinking of me?” He says, leaning towards ladybug.

“What? Nooooo. I just slept waaayyyy too much. Okay?” She replies, leaning in toward Chat and she stumbles a bit making her lean on his chest for support, making it extremely hard for him to keep his blush hidden.

“Okay. What’s the plan?” Chat asks.

“Well. Don’t get sleepy. Get the akuma. I’ll stay up here…” she trails off and her head drops slightly, then her head shots up and she continues. “And summon my lucky charm.” She finishes, blinking quite a lot.

“Okay, how about this. You summon lucky charm. I’ll find the akuma and distract them. I’ll get them to a place where there aren’t any people or plants, and then you can make your move. Okay?” Chat says, shaking her slightly to keep her awake after she nods of again. “Actually. You go find a place that doesn’t have any sleep plants and I’ll find you there. Don’t fall asleep.”

“Okay. I’ll do that.” She says a bit groggily and pushes off his chest to swing away to a high place out of the plants reach.

Chat turns around and has to take a few steadying breathes to calm his erratically beating heart.

Vaults onto a few different roofs in search of the akuma. After a few minutes, he sees a person floating on a textbook. Getting closer, the person is dressed in a scientist cloak, with plants covering their arms and legs completely. Where the fingers should be, are plant bulbs. The plants wrap from the shoulders to the base of the skull and around the back of their head. The plants around their legs extend up around their waist and torso. Looking at the textbook closer, he sees it’s a botany textbook.

Shaking the sudden drowsiness from his head, he pulls up the map feature on his baton and sees that Ladybug is just about a block away. On the roof of the Great Paris.

“Hey planty!” Chat shouts, “don’t you know that botany isn’t a real science?”

He smirks when the akuma turns to him, and roars with rage. He jumps side to side while sprinting towards the Great Paris to avoid the plant bulbs that are being launched at high speeds at him.

He pulls up the call feature and presses the button to call ladybug. She answers immediately, and he tells her to get ready, because they are going to be arriving shortly at the Great Paris.

He sees Ladybug nod, then she ends the call. He jumps to the side to avoid another bulb bomb and hears a faint “Lucky Charm!”

He rounds the corner and looks up to see ladybug holding a scythe. His eyes widen when he sees the weapon because his lady has never held a weapon during a fight before.

“The akuma. In the necklace! Probably!” Chat shouts toward ladybug. He sees her nod. Then she yells “duck!” Before chucking the scythe towards the akuma.

Chat barely had time to jump to the side before the scythe flies its way towards the akuma and slices through the vine strings holding the necklace to the akumas neck.

The necklace falls to the ground and Chat lunges for it, calling Cataclysm in the process. He manages to get to the necklace and grab it in his energized hand before throwing it towards Ladybug for purification.

After he throws it, he has to wrestle with the akuma to make sure that it doesn’t interfere with Ladybug.

After a few seconds, he hears Ladybug call goodbye to the butterfly, and the akumatized person reverts back to normal.

Chat sighs, then walks over to the polka dotted scythe stuck in the ground. When he pulls it out and turns around he sees a sheepish Ladybug.

“What would I do without you, Chaton?” Ladybug asks grabbing the scythe and throwing it into the air, calling “Miraculous Ladybug”.

“Probably fall asleep.” Chat replies with a chuckle.

They share a moment of laughs before ladybug speaks again.

“So, Tikki says we should talk about when we should make the switch. Do you want to meet at the Eiffel Tower in ten?” She asks.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.” Chat responds before giving a two-fingered salute and vaulting away.

 

......

 

Ten minutes later, Ladybug and Chat Noir are sitting on their favorite steel beam in silence.

“So,” Chat starts. “Plagg says that he and Tikki agreed on having the switch tomorrow. Do you want to do it then?” Chat finishes with a question and a raised brow looking over to his lady.

“Yeah, let’s say, tomorrow, top of the Eiffel Tower at midnight? Just to make sure no one sees us?” Ladybug asks.

“Okay. I’m guessing you don’t want us to reveal our identities, right? So, let’s find the boxes that our Miraculous came in, and bring them with us.” Chat says, looking out to the horizon.

“Yeah, thanks Chat. For respecting my decision. It means a lot to me. When we meet tomorrow. Let's stand in front of each other, but keep our eyes closed.” She responds with a smile.

“Like what happened In Dark Owl?” Chat asks with a smile.

“Yeah! Exactly. Thank you for getting me.” Ladybug says with a laugh.

“Yeah.”

* * *

 

Marinette heads home after a few more minutes of comfortable silence with a smile on her face. She spends a few minutes and finds the ornate box the earrings came in 2 years prior in the top drawer of her vanity. She sets in down on her window sill and proceeds to fall asleep with Tikki by her side.

 …..

Chat Noir jumps through his window, and detransforms into Adrien to look for the ornate box he received the ring from 2 years ago. He finds the box on a shelf by the Valentine’s Day card he believes came from Ladybug. He looks at it, and a smile makes its way onto his face as he remembers the first day he met Plagg.

He sets it down on a nightstand, and changes into pajamas. When he turns off the lights and is about ready to fall asleep. He feels Plagg plop down onto his chest.

“Thanks, Adrien. For being the best Chat Noir I have ever had.” Plagg says before falling asleep. Adrien can’t keep his grin from showing in his sleep even if he tried.

In the morning, Adrien wakes up to Plagg purring. He can’t bring himself to move, so he decides to sleep in a bit more.

He wakes up an hour later, and immediately feels a lack of heat on his chest.

He looks over to the miraculous box and sees Plagg sitting on it.

“You know,” Plagg starts, looking Adrien in the eyes. “The ladybug miraculous are earrings. Unless you plan on piercing your ears, whatcha planning on doing.”

“Well, I can’t really pierce my ears, father would get furious, and everyone would notice. So, could I ask you to help?” Adrien asks, standing up and walking over to his white over shirt.

“Yeah, whatcha need done?” Plagg implores, floating over to perch on Adrien’s head.

“Well, I want to wear the earrings like cufflinks or buttons.” Adrien states while looking his overshirt over. “Could you please cut off the buttons, here and here,” Adrien asks, pointing to the button on each sleeve.

“Child’s play.” Plagg scoffs as he cuts the buttons off and pokes the holes with barely a touch.

“Thanks, Plagg. You’re the best!” Adrien says, while shucking his pajama shirt and pulling on a casual shirt, then his over shirt.

“Of course, I am. I’m the god of destruction!” Plagg says proudly, puffing out his chest.

“Sure thing.” Adrien says with a light laugh as he pulls on some pants.

“Well, I’ve got piano practice, then some Chinese. Why don’t you go eat some camembert?” Adrien says, walking over to his piano.

Plagg squeals happily, flying over to the mini fridge where his cheese is kept.

......

Adrien went to some photoshoots, but he can’t really focus. As usual per photoshoot, he can’t have Plagg with him, but it doesn’t make it feel any better when he knows he’ll be parting with the one person he hasn’t gone very long without. His best friend, right below, possibly right above, Nino. Even Ladybug.

Even with all his modeling training, he can’t really keep a straight face. So, his photographer decides to have him sent home. He’ll do the photoshoot another day.

When he gets home, he takes a shower to try to clear his mind. He ends up going through his stash of camembert and taking a few chunks to put in a bag. After that, he sits on his couch and watches some Netflix. By the time he falls asleep, he’s re-watched his favorite anime’s and it’s 7 when he wakes up.

He looks to his bedside table to see his dinner waiting for him, and he promises to himself to thank Nathalie later.

He sits at his computer while eating his food, and searches through the Ladyblog for any akuma sightings. By the time it’s 7:30 he’s done eating, and he finds there haven’t been any akuma sightings. He decides to sit down, set an alarm for 23:50 and settles down with Plagg on his head to watch something on Netflix. Maybe Burn Notice. He’s always liked the idea of being a spy.

 

……

 

23:30 rolls around and he just can’t sit around and do nothing. So, he stands up, apologizes to Plagg and asks to transform. A flash of green light later, and Chat Noir is picking up an ornate box and putting a bag of camembert inside, then putting the box inside one of his pockets. A few seconds later he is jumping through his open window and vaulting his way towards the Eiffel Tower.

* * *

 

Marinette decides to use her time today to finish her homework and start a few projects. She forgot to ask Chat Noir about what Plagg would like, so she starts making the general things she thinks a cat kwami would like. A basket of yarn to play with, a bed of soft scrap cloth, and making sure that there is a warm spot somewhere in her room he would like to sleep in.

By the time she’s done with her projects, it’s 23:00 and she’s tired. She makes her way down into her kitchen to grab the freshest chocolate chip cookies and puts them in a bag. When that’s done, she makes her way up to her room again, and sets an alarm for 23:50. She then decides to go through the Ladyblog to see what she missed.

After a few minutes of searching, she nods off.

She is woken up by an annoying sound that just won’t stop and a frantic voice trying to wake her up. Suddenly she remembers what’s going on that night and shoots up out of her chair to grab the miraculous box and the cookies. When she grabs them, she puts the cookies inside the box for traveling purposes, puts the box inside her purse and calls for her transformation. After a flush of pick light, ladybug is opening up the trap door to the balcony, is scrambling up out of it, kicks it shut and is swinging through the city towards the Eiffel Tower.

When she lands on the top of the Eiffel Tower, she is shocked (not really, just embarrassed that she was almost late) to see Chat Noir is already sitting at the edge. She sits down next to him, and they just sit there in comfortable silence for a bit.

“Okay, milady. It’s time.” Chat says, standing up and walking away from the edge. “But really quick,” Chat pulls out his miraculous box and opens it. He retrieves a bag of cheese and closes the box again. “I just thought, you know since I don’t know how you live, that I should supply you with a stash of Plagg’s favorite cheese.” He says, setting the bag of cheese down and rubbing the back of his neck.

“It’s fine,” She waves off his concern. “I had the same idea. Just not the cheese. I brought some fresh cookies... that are in my purse. Which is stuck under my transformation.” Ladybug finishes with a sheepish smile.

“Ah, great minds think alike, do they not?” Chat replies, stepping a bit closer. “What say you, we see what we look like in our new suits?”

“Let’s do this.” She responds, closing her eyes knowing that Chat is already following her lead.

“Spots off.”

“Claws in”

Marinette reaches for her purse, and feels the box being pushed into her hand. “Thanks, Tikki.”

She opens the box, takes out the cookie bag and feels Tikki take the bag from her hand. She removes the earrings one by one and replaces them inside the box. Closing the box, she hears Chat’s box close too.

“Okay, kitty. I’ll reach for your box with my left and give you my box with my right. Can you do the same?” The asks, knowing that he’ll do it.

“Of course.” He responds simply.

When she reaches out with her left, she feels a box being pushed into her hand, and with her right, feels a hand touch the box. They exchange boxes, and Marinette hears Chat opening his box.

Following his lead, she opens her box, and feels the air in front of her crackle with energy. She slides the ring onto her finger.

“Claws out, sweetheart.” A scratchy voice tells her.

She hears the familiar voice of Tikki telling Chat Noir that what he needs to say to transform is “spots on.”

Taking a deep breath, she calls for her transformation.

“Claws out.” She breathes.

She hears the familiar voice of Chat Noir say, “Spots on.”

When she opens her eyes, she sees her partner standing there. Dawning her spots. She sees His torso is covered in a red material, with a thick black stripe running up the middle curving outward more in the middle and narrowing up towards his collar, that looks like a bullet proof vest. The top of the vest is dark red and extends to cover his shoulders. Red and black polka dotted sleeve like gauntlets cover his hands to his elbows. His biceps are surrounded in the same material as his torso, towards the inside of the bicep is black material instead on red. On the outside of his bicep, towards the top of each bicep is a ladybug miraculous. On the side of the Miraculous are ladybug wings, the wings show a little but slide into slits in the material of his bicep. His hips to his knees are covered, by the same red material that covers his torso, in the fashion of American football padded pants. The inside of the pads are thick black stripes. The rest of his legs are covered by red and black polka dotted boots that extend up to just two inches below his knees. In between each red pad of his suit is a black material. His hair is unkempt like it would be if he were Chat Noir, but the back is pulled into a loose ponytail by a red strip of cloth, with the ends hanging on either side of the ponytail. The tips of his hair have a red tint and, in the place where his leather ears would normally be, are antennae. She sees him pull out his weapon, she expects to see a yo-yo, but she sees his baton instead. The baton is black instead of silver, and instead of a green paw print, there is a red ladybug with its wings extended. His mask looks just like her normal Ladybug mask would. His emerald green eyes looking at her in wonder.

……

 

When Adrien opens his eyes, he’s not sure what he was expecting but it certainly wasn’t what he was seeing. He sees that his lady is wearing a black leather, skin tight suit. Fur puffs out around her shoulders, wrists, lines the top of her collar and a fur belt wraps around her waist. The belt bends into a scarf like tail. Boots extend halfway up her calf and are lined with fur. Her face is hidden by a black leather mask like his normal Chat Noir mask. She looks at him with pure electric blue eyes, shining in wonder. Her pigtails are pulled into a long ponytail, held together with leather straps. On top of her hair are cute little leather cat ears, with puffs of fur coming out of the inside of them. Lines of electric blue travel from the side of her collar to her shoulder and split to spread down either side of her shoulder down her sides. The line on the right shoulder splits off into three lines instead of two, the middle line runs down the middle of her arm, and once it meets her wrist, it splits into two other lines. These lines curve to the finger that the ring rests on and once getting to the finger, raise out of the suit and wrap through the inside of the band of the ring and at the underside of the ring, submerge into her glove again.  The two lines curve to meet in her front and back, just above her fur belt in the front, and at the base of her spine in the back. A silver bell hangs from the intersection of her collar bones. Her fingers are tipped with hardened leather claws, and her boots are tipped with steel claws. Her yo-yo rests on her hip, but this time it’s all black, with electric blue lines sprouting from a blue paw print in the middle. The paw print on the miraculous is electric blue, instead of green. and he can’t say that she doesn’t wear the Chat Noir suit better. He sees her pull her yo-yo off her hip and she lets it bob up and down, her head following the yo-yo through its journey, the normal black yo-yo string is electric blue.

“Well, my lady. Looks like you’re my little kitty now.


	3. Day Zero, Getting To Know Eachother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two New-ish superheros talk to eachother. Adrien gets to fangirl and Marinette finds out something exciting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry! I thought I posted this chapter a while ago! Anyway, enjoy!

She levels Chat (Not Chat Noir) width a deadpan look. “Little Kitty. Ha. Ha.” She says dryly. Chat Noir- Not Chat, _UGH! we need to figure out names!_ \- cracks a grin.

“What, it’s true!” He says, backing away from her, holding his baton out in defense. “Sorry.” He says nervously when her deadpan look morphs into an incredulous look.

Heaving a sigh, she walks over to the railing of the platform they are standing on and sits down underneath it. “Chat, or Not Chat, ugh! We need to figure out new names for ourselves. It’s too confusing to call you Chat Noir when you are clearly not Chat Noir.”

“Okay. So, different names for us, based on our new temporary Miraculous? So, I’m guessing that Chat Noir is off the table for you?” He asks, settling down next to her, and looking out over the horizon.

“Yeah, I’m not going to be called Chat Noir. Too confusing. You probably shouldn’t go by Ladybug.” She says, knocking shoulders with him.

“What! I think I could totally rock the name Ladybug.” He brings his hand up to his chest in mock hurt.

She lets out a snort. “For one you aren’t a lady. And two, don’t take my name, I’ve worked hard for it!” She pushes his shoulder playfully.

“Oh, fine.” He deflates playfully. “I guess I won’t steal your name.” He brings his hand up to stroke his chin thoughtfully. “How about Chate Noir?”

“Nope. Too similar. Pick a different one.”

“Hmm. Forgive me, but how about Lady Noir?”

“Lady Noir? Like the ship name for us?” She asks, raising an eyebrow and looking over at him.

“No! No, not like that!” He waves his hands frantically, while a blush spreads across his cheeks. “No, like, you know how mine was-“

“-Is”

“Chat Noir. It basically translates to black cat. You could be Black Lady?”

“Uh, I think that could be a bit suggestive. How about Dame En Noir?” She asks, looking towards the horizon again.

“Huh, that seems catchy. But what about Chat Minuit? It matches your hair.”

She quirks her mouth to the side. _Chat Minuit. That’s not that bad. Good kitty. Wait._

“Yeah, that’s a good name. Thanks… whoever you are.” She looks back to her partner with a smirk.

He looks confused, then his eyes widen in realization.

“Right! Um… Beetle?” He suggests, rubbing his neck.

“Chat, that’s way too simple. And not catchy at all. Go again.” She says on a giggle.

He hums in thought. Then his eyebrows shoot up, and he raises his pointer finger to the sky. “I’m going with Red Scarab. You can’t stop me.” He finishes, pointing his finger at her

She lets out a snort. “Why did you point to the sky?”

He gives her a confused look. “Is that not what people do when they have a good idea?”

“Maybe in cartoons, Red.” She says, giving another giggle.

“Well forgive me if I’m not socially adept, I’ve been homeschooled most of my life.” He says, bringing his hand to his chest.

…

His eyes widen and he slams his hand to his mouth like it will stop him from saying another personal fact.

“Sorry.” He says, looking defeated. He gets up to leave but she stops him by grabbing his arm.

“Hey, it’s fine. We all slip up sometimes. It happens. I should know.” She says, pulling him back down.

“So you’re not mad.” He locks hopeful eyes with hers.

“Of course not! Why would I be?” She says a bit too loud to be acceptable and he flinches slightly. That makes her feel even more terrible.

“I don’t know.” He lays his head down on her lap, looking out over the horizon.

They’re silent for a few minutes, somehow she starts taking her hands through his red tinged hair.

Then he breaks it with a heart breaking question.

“We’re going to be partners forever, right. You’re not going to leave me?”

Her hands freeze in place, and she looks down at him with shocked eyes.

“I will never leave you. Partners forever.”

He looks up into her eyes, and smiles.

They stayed in silence for a few minutes more before Red breaks it again.

“Hey, we should probably tell the Ladyblogger, and Paris about what’s going on between us. We don’t want them thinking we’re akumas or that our alternate, alternate egos have been replaced.

“Yeah, we probably should. It would be bad if we were mobbed during an akuma fight because of a misunderstanding.”

Red pulls out his baton, and pulls up the Ladyblog site. He clicks on the ‘Submit post’ button and starts typing.

“Done, wanna read over it?” He hands her the baton after a few seconds.

_Hey Paris, this is Chat Noir. For a week Ladybug and I are going to look quite different and are going by different names. I will be Red Scarab, and LB will be Chat Minuit. Long story short, we’ve switched miraculous due to a bet. We just don’t want you to be worried. Everything is fine._

“Nope, nothing to edit. Go ahead and post it.” She hands the baton back to Red Scarab.

“Alright.” He says, submitting the post.  
——

Red Scarab and Chat Minuit stayed at the Eiffel Tower for a few minutes after they posted to the Ladyblog. After a little while of comfortable silence, Red breaks it once again.

“Hey, My lady. I want to ask you something.” Red asks, looking into her eyes.

“What is it?” Chat Minuit asks.

“Um. I don’t know anything about Tikki, can you, maybe, tell me?” He asks a bit sheepishly.

“Well,” She starts, leaning on his shoulder. “Tikki is a huge helper.-“

“Something I could get used to.”

“She is a huge fan of any sweets-“

“Sweet!”

She stops abruptly, and sends Him a raised eyebrow.

“Sorry, continue.” He says, rubbing his neck.

She sends him a brief small smile. “She’ll tell you a ton of encouraging things. She’s a very supportive Kwami.”

His eyes blow wide with amazement. “Awesome, this is going to be great!” His face is broken by his smile.

“Okay. Your turn, Red. What’s Plagg like?” She asks, poking his shoulder.

“Ah, Well. To be frank. He is the exact opposite of Tikki. He’s lazy, whines almost all the time. And never provides any help, unless he gets a reward.” His annoyance is clear.

“Oh, come on. Doesn’t he have a soft spot?” Chat Minuit asks, already regretting this swap.

“Yeah. A soft spot for cheese.” He huffs.

“Ugh. Tikki told me he’s a cat kwami. What does he like?”

“Cheese, cheese, and more cheese. Have I said cheese already? Anyway, he’s more or less a cat. But don’t get any catnip.” He looks over to her and sees her raised brow. “It’s a long story.” He waves off her unvoiced question.

“Ohhhh…Kay? Well, I’ve got some things set up in my room. Anyway, I think it’s time for bed. It’s what, 1:30?” She says, checking her yo-yo for the time and wincing when she sees what the time was.

“Yeah, Okay. Bedtime for the super heros. Though, I’m going to spend some time bonding with Tikki when I get home.” Red stands up and extends his hand to help her up.

“Always the gentleman. Or should I say, Gentlebug?” She says, taking his hand and letting him help her up.

“I try.” He bows down to give her knuckles a kiss. Good night, _mon petit chaton_.” He says, looking up into her eyes from his bowed position, smirking.

“ _Really_! That’s my line!” She says, taking her hand back, and pushing him back by his nose.

“I’m not the cat now. I’ll see you next patrol, or the next akuma attack.” Red Scarab bends down to pick up the bag of cookies and walks toward the railing of the platform, facing Chat Minuit the whole way. He gives her a two fingered salute and falls off the balcony with a loud whoop of joy. He hears Chat Minuit shout “Red!” in alarm as he lands on a steel beam just about four meters from the platform they were on, and pulls out this baton. He vaults off of the beam into the very early morning darkness

He lands on the roof across the street from his open room window. Vaulting from there, he shoots through his open window, when he lands he detransforms and holds his hand out to catch Tikki. Setting Tikki down on his shoulder, Adrien opens the cookie bag to give Tikki one, walking over to his bed. Sitting down on the bed, one leg folded in close and the other with the foot on the ground, Adrien grabs a nearby pillow to set Tikki down on. Adrien decides to start talking.

“Hey, So. You know Ladybug -or Chat Minuit- personally…” Adrien looks to Tikki and she’s paused midway to taking a bite of her cookie, and looks like she’s about to say something. He starts talking again hastily. “I don’t want to know her identity. Not at all. Not unless she’s ready. It’s just…” He trails off again, looking down at the comforter between his leg and the pillow Tikki is sitting on.

“I- do you think I have a chance at earning her heart? A chance of earning her affection? I mean, for two years already, I’ve been holding myself out for Her. Hoping one day she might return my feelings. Should I just accept the situation and move on?” His voice is soft, gaze locked on the bed.

“Adrien.” Tikki abandons the cookie to float up to grab as much of his cheeks as her body will allow her and forcing him to look her in her eyes. “You already have. She loves you, maybe not the way you want her to. But she does. You are invaluable, irreplaceable to her. But if you feel like you should move on, If you don’t want to keep holding yourself out for her, then go ahead.”

She sees him smile a bit, and as he opens his mouth, she says something else. “But first! Tell me a few things! How badly do you want Ladybug and if you had to move on, who would be the lucky recipient of your attraction?”

His eyes visibly light up and she realizes why Marinette could talk for hours about his eyes or facial expressions.  
……

About an hour later, Tikki’s realizing that whether she’s with Adrien or Marinette, She’ll listen to hours upon hours of love struck rambling. Unless she can get Adrien and Marinette together…

“-member that Valentine’s Day card Ladybug sent me?” Tikki snaps out of her thoughts at that “Well, I think Ladybug sent it. I hope she did. But how did she find my poem in order to answer it? Anyway! I still have it.”.

_He still has the card! Oh, if only Marinette knew!_

“You do!” Tikki squeals in excitement.

“Yeah!” Adrien all but squeals with Tikki because her squeal of excitement means that Ladybug did write, and send the card, and that gets him all giddy.

After a few more minutes of squealing on both their parts, Tikki asks for Adrien to answer her second question.

“So, real quick. If you did move on from Ladybug. Who would you move on to?”

"Marinette. Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” Wow, that was scary fast.

Tikki releases another squeal. _Marinette! You are locked in a vicious, unforgiving love square. Just admit your feelings! Please! End our-your-suffering! Okay, maybe its not that vicious or unforgiving, but still!_

After an hour of talking about Marinette, and a few cookies that are now nothing more but crumbs in a tiny god’s belly, Tikki and Adrien are ready to collapse from sleep deprivision.

Adrien goes through his nightly, turned morning routine. A quick shower and brushing of teeth. The changing of normal clothes into pajamas. Adrien freezes when he’s in the middle of removing his overshirt. He slides it back on and walks over to his closet.

“What are you looking for?” Tikki asks, flying over to Adrien while he’s rifling through his closet.

“Something to poke holes into my pajamas.” He says, still moving stuff around in the closet.

“What for?”

“I realized that I can’t really take off my overshirt if I still want being in contact with the earrings.” He states, walking over to his computer desk. Tikki flying by his side.

“Why’s that?” Her little brows furrowing in confusion.

“Well, I can’t really pierce my ears, people will notice too easily. So I decided to wear the earrings like cufflinks. I don’t want to sleep with my overshirt on if I can avoid it, though. So, I want to poke some holes into the surface of my pocket to house the earrings.” He tells her while looking through his top desk drawer.

“I can help!” Tikki suggests after Adrien slumps into his desk chair. He perks up upon hearing that.

“You can?” That would be great!”

Tikki beams at Adrien, then focuses on her paws, putting them in front of herself, leaving a few centimeters of space between them. After a second, a bright pink light forms in that space, and it elongates into a six inch poker.

Returning her focus to Adrien, she gives him the poker, and he pokes two holes into his pajama pockets. He takes one earring out of the overshirt sleeve, and is relieved to see Tikki is still there. He inserts the earring into the hole and releases his breathe he hadn’t known he’d been holding. He smiles up at Tikki and removes the other earring to insert it into the other hole.

“You are quite resourceful, Adrien. Tikki says, smiling back at him. “You’ll make a great Scarab!”

“Wait. Are you saying that your other holders haven’t all been female?” Adrien asks, intrigue piquing.

“Yeah, I’ve had male holders before. The female holders while, yes they did have differing hero names, they were generally different translations of Ladybug. The male also had differing hero names, but most consisted of Scarab and Beetle and different translations of those.” Tikki supplies. Sitting on Adrien’s head while he removes his over shirt and shucks his casual shirt.

“Hope you don’t mind, but I normally sleep shirtless.” Adrien says, walking towards his bed.

“It’s fine. I’ve seen worse.” Tikki giggles when she sees a blush spread across his cheeks.

“Try not to think about what I said too much. You won’t be able to sleep otherwise.” Tikki tells Adrien teasingly while he settles down to sleep. Then she settles down next to his head to sleep.  
——

She was not expecting any of this. Chat Noir, now Red Scarab jumped off the Eiffel Tower and nearly gave her a heart attack. Luckily he landed on one of the steel beams and vaulted home from there

She picked up the bag of cheese Red had supplied her with. After putting that in her suit’s pocket. Thanks goodness that she had pockets. She really needs to talk to Tikki about putting pockets on her ladybug suit.

She swung through the city back home and slipped through her trap door. Once she landed in her room she removed the bag of cheese from her pocket before she released her transformation, and gave a very sleepy Plagg a slice of cheese.  
She had set Plagg on his new bed of cloth, and then promptly collapsed onto her bed to sleep.

Once again, she was not expecting any of this. At. All. Plagg had, for some reason, decided to sleep on her face instead of the bed she made and had just left his slice of cheese on the bed. She woke up to the confusing site of half her vision being black, while the rest still has some color.

What she wakes up to was nothing to what happens a few seconds later.

Marinette gently and slowly removed Plagg from her face, and set him down on the pillow where her head was previously. As she is sitting up, she hears Plagg mutter something.

Turning back to Plagg with curiosity, all drowsiness completely gone, she leans in closer to better hear.

“No. No, I don’t wanna leave.” Plagg mutters.

_Well, apparently Plagg does have feelings. And he sleep talks. This is great! Now, if onl-_

Her thoughts are cut off by Plagg’s muttering again.

“Fu, no. He’s the best Chat Noir… you can’t…”

“Aww.” She coos softly. Making sure not to wake him up.

She decides to lay down next to Plagg for a bit longer. _He’s just too cute not to spend more time with._

A second after she settles her head down next to Plagg, he starts crying softly.

She’s shocked by this, and scoots toward Plagg to rub his head soothingly, when Plagg suddenly cries out.

“Stupid Kid!”

“Shh. It’s okay. It’s okay.”

“Stupid kid.” Plagg sniffs. “You weren’t supposed to die!”

Obviously Plagg has seen way too much for him to be having nightmares about his holder of just two years dying.

“Adrien!”

She freezes. Blood running cold. She can’t be hearing right. _It’s not possible._

“Adrien, you weren't supposed to die” Plagg's voice is soft and heartbroken.  _That's not possible._

 Suddenly Plagg shoots up, breathing heavily. Her hand drops to the pillow. _It can't be_.

While Plagg is trying to steady his breathing, the puzzle pieces click for her. _Of course! How could I have been so blind. The same hair, Sure it’s a slightly different color, and a different hairstyle, but the miraculous changes the hair slightly when transformed. Just fuddle Adrien’s hair slightly and voila! The eyes are the same too. Sure his eyes become pure green when Chat, but the white just becomes green. The irises are the same color. Red’s irises are the same!_

Plagg turns to look at Marinette quizzically when she releases a long, happy squeal.

The silver ring suddenly seems warmer and she realizes that it looks exactly like Chat’s ring just plain and silver. _He’s been wearing this ring for two years! I’m never washing my hand again. Well, actually, that’s gross. But still... It’s the same as Adrien’s! Adrien is Chat Noir, who is now Red Scarab._

“ _AhhhhHHHH!_ ” She squeals again, realizing that Adrien has proclaimed his undying love for her time and time again.

“Hey!” She jumps slightly, snapping back to reality. “Why’re you squealing?”

“Oh, I just found out Adrien is Chat Noir/Red Sarab. It’s-“ she stops when she sees Plagg’s wide eyes and her eyes widen in realization. She slams her hand on her mouth, but lets out a pained squeak as she slammed too hard.

“How and when?” Plagg asks, narrowing his eyes at her.

“Umm. Well you her having a nightmare and you were talking in your sleep. You were worried about your holder dying, and then you exclaimed Adrien’s name twice. I just connected the dots.” She says, fiddling with her fingers.

“Ugh, Tik’s gonna kill me.” Plagg says, putting a paw to his head and closing his eyes. When he opens then again, there is a determination burning in them. “You can’t tell anyone. Especially not Tikki.”

“Of course, I’m Ladybug, though now I’m Chat Minuit, but still I know how important it is to keep his identity secret. But I think Tikki already knows.” Marinette replies, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.

“No, not that. She’s known he’s Chat Noir since Dark Owl, and she had her suspicions even before then. I’m talking about my nightmare and and what you heard and that you found out he’s my kit from me.” Plagg says, flying to his cheese slice.

“Ohh.” She’s silent as a new type of realization hits her full force. “Crap!” She says, flopping down face first onto her bed.

“What? ‘Crap’ isn’t a good thing. ‘Crap’ is never a good thing. Why did ‘Crap’ happen?” Plagg asks, alarm very clear in his squeaky voice.

“Adr’en’ my pa’tn’r.” She replies.

“Why’s that so bad?” Plagg scoffs, dropping his cheese again and flying over to perch on her bed frame. “Don’t you have a huge crush on him?”

“Yeah…” she whines, lifting her head from the bed. “But that not what’s bad. My biggest crush ever just so happens to my pun loving, destructive partner. He’s proclaimed his undying love for my over and over and over again!”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Plagg asks, suddenly wishing that he could to back to Adrien so he doesn’t have to deal with all this drama.

“No! I’ve pushed him away every time. I’ve denied him! I can’t tell him I’m Ladybug. He’ll never forgive me!” She says, tears beginning to well up in her eyes.

Heaving a _heavy_ sigh, Plagg realizes that he’s going to have to do something about her freaking out if he wants his kit to be happy for once.

“No. Don’t think like that. He’s been quite sad that the love of his life hasn’t returned his feelings but when you tell him that you’re his lady, he’ll burst out crying from utter joy.” Plagg flies over to plop down on her head and knead at her scalp.

“Really?” she sniffs.  _Really, where'd the tears come from?_

“Really. He’s a total sap. He still has that Valentine’s Day card you gave him. It’s taped above his computer.” Plagg says, trying to break her out of her freak out zone.

“Really!” She exclaims.

“Yeah.”

She lets out another happy squeal, and Plagg winces at the sheer volume.

“Tell me something real quick,” She asks after a much needed moment of silence. “Does he still have that blue scarf he got for his birthday?”

“Yeah, it’s his favorite. Why’d’ya ask?” Plagg asks, stopping his kneading and floating in front of her face.

“Eeeee!” She squeaks happily.

“Please stop with the animal noises and tell me why you asked. Wait…” Plagg narrows his eyes at her. “Let me guess. You made it, but forgot to sign it, just like the card. You saw him at school the next day, and found out he thinks his complete disgrace of a dad got it for him. He was so happy that he thinks his...‘dad’” he spits out the word with disgust. “got it for him, and you didn’t have the heart, well you have too much of a heart, to tell him. Am I right?”

She nods, feeling a loss for words for what just happened. “Are- are you mad at me?” She asks tentatively.

“What!” He scoots back in alarm. “I couldn’t be happier. He needs someone who actually loves him in his life, because we all know he lacks it _way_ too much.” Plagg says, zipping up to her face. “You need to be with him. He needs you.”

“Okay” She says, already the dream of a house and kids with Adrien seems to finally be realistic.

“So,” Plagg says after a bit, turning away from her. “What do you have in store for me?”

“Ah, right!” Marinette jumps out of her bed to show Plagg what she currently has. “There’s a bed made of super soft cloth right there.” She points to the bed of cloth where Plagg’s slice of cheese lay.

“I’ve got a basket of yarn for when you’re bored.” She points to an overflowing basket of yarn and Plagg lets out his own squeal of happiness. “I live in a bakery, and I help out quite often, so I can get you whatever scraps of cheese you want. Including cheese bread.” She finishes and the squeal he let out before was absolutely nothing compared to the one of pure joy that escapes his lips right then.


	4. Day One, Part One: Repercussions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien seems to be having a better day, maybe this switch wasn’t such a bad thing? Marrinettte suddenly wishes she could have Tikki back, she hasn’t felt this unlucky since before she became Ladybug.

Adrien wakes up to a soft buzzing. He looks around to see if Plagg has his face buried in a pillow, purring again, but this doesn’t sound like purring. When he looks to his side to see what is making Plagg spud so weird, he sees a red being instead. His eyes slam open, and he bolts upright in alarm. This isn’t Plagg! Who is this?!

Then a few things happen. One) he regrets flinging the blankets off of his body as he is now very cold, and Two) he remember that last night, he and Ladybug (now Chat Minuit) switched miraculous. So, this red being is the ladybug kwami. Then he remember Ladybug/Chat Minuit telling him that the Kwami’s name is Tikki.

Calming down slightly at these memories, he grabs the blanket and flings it over him again, as he just wants to get warm.

After a minute of trying to get warm again but the blanket he currently has over his body just isn’t working, he reluctantly pulls it off of his body and sits up. Looking back at Tikki, he sees that she’s curled up on the pillow next to where his head would have been. At this, a smile creeps it’s way into his sleepy face as he walks over to his bathroom to take a warm shower (though now it’s a little bit warmer and longer of a shower) and as he walks out he sees that Tikki has woken up and is looking around his room with a confused look on her tiny face. “I know, it’s a bit disorientating to wake up next to someone you’re not used to.” He says while blow drying his hair.

  
“Well, I can deal with that, I’ve dealt with that for millennia. No, what’s disorienting me is waking up with a new holder while the previous one isn’t dead, crippled, or just really old. These kwami swaps are always disorienting.” Tikki says, rubbing at her eyes.

“Ah.” Is all he can think of to respond. It is weird to wake up to a new kwami. But he can’t even imagine never being with a wielder for more than a lifetime. Always having a new holder. Always losing your holder. It’s a depressing thought.

“Tikki?” He asks timidly while walking over to his dresser to find a shirt. “How do you do it?”

“Do what?” He can practically hear the tilt of her head in her voice.

“How do you deal with losing every holder? How do you get past it?” Rummaging through his shirt drawer, memories of a blonde woman flash through his mind, threatening to bring tears.

“Oh.” Her voice is devoid of the cheerfulness that was there in the night, that was there even in her sleepy, disoriented state. And he instantly regrets asking anything. As he’s about to open his mouth to change the subject, Tikki continues.

“I’ve never really gotten past them. They’ve always become part of me. But focusing on them is not how you move on in life. How I deal with the death of my holder, weather it be in battle or from age, is knowing that I had a really good time with them. Knowing that now they don’t have to deal with anymore pain. And knowing that I’m going to meet someone new, and have them become a new part of me. No one can replace what I’ve lost. But they can show me a new light to the world. Dealing with death isn’t about fixating on how they’ve ripped a huge hole in your heart. That’ll never leave. But moving on is about not allowing that hole to get bigger, and letting that spur you on to make it feel a little bit better.” She started out with a small voice, but as she continued to talk, her voice got stronger. Stronger with knowledge. With care. With love. And for the first time, as flashes of his mother, the one person in his family that actually loved him, his eyes don’t threaten to spill tears. His heart doesn’t clench painfully.

“It’s not going to happen over night. But it will happen eventually.” Tikki settles down on his shoulder, and nuzzles his cheek. “You have people who are willing to help you through that process. Don’t push them away.”

“Thanks, Tikki.” He says, scratching her head with a finger. “You are miles better than Plagg.” At that Tikki giggles.

“Oh, he’s can provide some emotional comfort. But he doesn’t normally do that because he always gets attached to his holders. And is always hurt much more than me when they die. But he does care. More so than me, actually. He just doesn’t want to get more attached, only to watch them die.” At that, his eyes widen. He’s never thought of that before. That… that actually explains a lot… it’s also so very depressing.

Falling into a comforting silence, he pulls out a slightly thicker, dark red t-shirt. He tells Tikki to get on his head, so he doesn’t trap her on his shoulder with his shirt, he pulls it on. For a second, he wraps his arms around his torso, relishing in the warmth his shirt brings him. Releasing a sigh, he walks over to where he left his over-shirt last night, and slips it on. A content sigh falls from his lips as this shirt brings him even more warmth. He then proceeds to check for the miraculous he knows is in the sleeves and when he doesn’t find them, he starts to freak out slightly.

“Adrien, the miraculous are in your pockets. You put them there last night, remember?”

Right, that he did. “Thanks Tikki.” His fingers run over his pockets, and is even more relieved to find the two studs poking from his pockets. “You know, I’m am so grateful to have a kwami that helps me through my freak outs. It saves so much time.” At this, Tikki giggles again. It’s a good sound, that brings him a bit more peace. “Also, pajamas with pockets. They are amazing, and whoever invented them is my savior.”

Falling into a comfortable silence one more, he replaces the earrings into his over-shirt once more, and continues to get ready for the day. Once fully clothed, he heads for the dining hall, ready for a fatherless, more so lonely, breakfast since no one typically joins him except for the kwami he has at the time. He doesn’t even need to move to tell Tikki to hide in his pocket since the second he moved toward his door when ready she slipped into it.

When he opens the door to the dining hall, he’s infinitely surprised to see that father is sitting at the table.

Normally his father is only at the table for important events. Or when he has to tell him bad news. “Father. Sorry for how this is going to sound, but why are you here?” His father lifts his head, and raises an eyebrow in question.

“Am I not allowed to eat breakfast at the table?” His voice doesn’t have a hint of iciness in it, instead it is mostly neutral, and has a hint of… is that amusement?!

“Ah, um, well. No, that’s not what I meant, but- usually you only eat at the table when there is important business to tell me. Is there anything you need to tell me?” It’s so weird to just see him here, actually eating. Actually looking at him. It’s just weird to see him there.

“Ah, well, there is something.” Here it comes. There’s a photo shoot that can’t be rescheduled and he’s going to miss all of school today. And due to that, he won’t be able to spend any time with his friends. Tipic- “Your schedule has been cleared. Your Chinese instructor has cancelled due to family matters, and there is something going on after school, so fencing has been cancelled too.”

“What.” He blanches. That’s never happened before. He’s never had a clear schedule before. Who is this person? What has he done with his father.

“Close your mouth Adrien. It isn’t polite.” Slowly, he closes his mouth, he didn’t even know his jaw dropped!

“Is that all?” He asks, his eyes are still wide, but that isn’t going to change any time soon. This person is not his father.

“Of course I’m your father. Now, you should eat.” He said that out loud! He sits down, and starts eating his food. Somehow his plate is more than what he’s ever been allowed to eat for breakfast. At least 500 calories more!

For the rest of breakfast, his father doesn’t say anything, but that’s normal. What isn’t normal, is that his father stayed for all of breakfast.

Accepting that this happened, as weird as it is, he bids farewell to his father, and he hummed in response. He’s never done that! It’s a miracle! When the door to the dining hall closes, he starts walking to the car, skipping all the way. When he steps outside, he looks into his shirt pocket and sees that Tikki is smiling up at him.

Oh, this week is going to be so good!

The rest of the day goes just about as good as breakfast did, maybe even better.

He stepped out from his car, and instead of being immediately tackled by Chloé, she isn’t anywhere to be seen. He gives a mental fist pump. As he walks into the school he sees why, Chloé is having a very heated conversation with Lila. If he’s lucky, she won’t see him.

He’s lucky. So much more lucky than what he’s used to.

He gets to spend at least ten minutes talking with Nino, since it’s the rare day that he isn’t with Alya.

During class, he’s fully awake and aware, and he gets all the notes. Every detail of the multiple lessons. But Marinette isn’t having the best of days. He’s noticed that she was constantly nodding off during classes. He’s been there, and feels for her.

So he’s resolved to talk to her after school, but since they don’t have the last period together, he didn’t know that she went back home, with a note from her teacher to let her get more sleep. That, he found out from Nino, who does have the last period with her.

As he walks out of the school, there’s a bounce in his step. Chloé decided that her conversation “Soiled her mood and in turn, her hair, so she’s spending the day ridding the horrible ‘Lila-ness from her body.’” Her words, not his. Lila decided that Chloé emotionally drained her, so she went home too. He couldn’t be more grateful.

So, during his car ride home, he decides that it’s a good day to visit his favorite person. (Well, second favorite.)

When he steps through the doors to the mansion, he says hello to the seemingly empty house, but instead of the usual silence to his greeting, he gets a faint hum in response. Today has been good. It’s time to see if he can make someone else’s day better.

* * *

  
What seems to be immediately after she closed her eyes, her mind plunges her into a constant dream.

At first, She’s fighting the first 2 dozen akumatized victims, only this time Adrien is looking at her for directions, distracting the villain by spouting horrible (not really, but she’ll never admit that to anyone) puns, sparing with the villain with an indestructible silver baton, and calling for Cataclysm. The destructive magic looks weird enveloping a non-magically gloved hand.

Her mind fixates slightly on that one time where she was fretting about how Adrien could be Hawkmoth, (she realizes now that that was completely silly) and how Adrien was trusting Lila more than her.

Reliving that moment was always painful, but it’s more painful now that she knows it was Adrien. Not wanting to remember any of that anymore, she forces her mind to skip to the next part.

What she finds there wasn’t much better. In this part, instead of fighting akumatized people, her mind forces her to relive each time she brushed off Chat Noir advances, because she was pining after Adrien. Only, Chat Noir isn’t professing his undying love for her, it’s Adrien. Her mind makes it super confusing, because each time Adrien is professing his love for her, he’s wearing a black leather jacket, and black jeans with neon green lining. And each time she rejects him, she tells him that she's not interested in him, but Adrien wearing his white over-shirt, black shirt, blue jeans, and orange sneakers.

After what seems to be the hundredth time, she finds herself sitting in her usual seat in class. She’s relieved, but when she looks to where Adrien would sit, Chat Noir is there. Chat Noir is talking to Nino during class, Chat Noir is writing notes on Adrien’s tablet. Chat Noir is leaning back slightly from Chloé when she’s babbling to him or hanging on him. Chat Noir is smiling politely to everyone. Chat Noir tutoring fellow classmates in physics. Chat Noir is walking up the classroom steps to talk to her in the back of the class. Chat Noir having that extremely contagious laugh.

Right as she was starting to get used to seeing Chat Noir in class, her mind rips her from the classroom to the first Valentine’s Day after she got her miraculous.

In this dream, her mind helpfully reminds her that Adrien was about to tell her something before taking one of Dark Cupid’s hate arrows for her. Even more helpfully, it reminds her that she did get what she was always dreaming of. She got to kiss Adrien. Then, like the lovely brain it is, it reminds her of all the times Adrien has taken hits for her. All the times where he’s almost died.

Suddenly, her mind flips to the locker room, and she swears her mind is trying to give her whiplash. As she closes her locker, Chat Noir is beside her, leaning against the lockers. She hears him ask her about him in the third person, it is really weird. For some reason she gives him a stuttering reply, and Chat Noir leans in close, narrowing his eyes in suspicion, opening his mouth to say something-

But instead of any words coming out, a shrill shriek escapes his mouth.  
———  
Jerking awake, she looks around frantically trying to find where the horrible sound is coming from.

The shriek isn’t calming down at all, and her ears are ringing painfully as her eyes are wide open, her fingers clutching her blanket in a death grip.

When her eyes lock on her phone, the sound emanating from it seems to double in intensity. Feeling increasingly agitated, she lunges for the phone. When her fingers latch around the little box of ear death, she frantically hits the stop button on the alarm, but due to her haste, her finger misses the mark a good five times before finally hitting its intended mark.

Releasing a sigh, her mind clears almost instantly. She straightens from the primitive crouch over her phone that she didn’t realize she had been in, and she looks around her room. She’s at her work desk, witch is halfway across her room from her bed, and at least 5 feet lower from it. Furrowing her eyebrows in confusion, she looks away from her bed to continue to scan the room, at her window sill, she sees a small black cat rolling around on it. Her eyebrows furrow even further as she tries to figure out what that thing is.

As she takes a step further, her ears pop, and her hearing is overcome with sounds. The first is a howling coming from this black cat, the next are muffled voices from the bakery. After that, she hears car doors slamming and honking of early morning traffic. She drops to the ground, cupping her hands over her ears, trying to muffle the sounds she now hears. After about a minute, her ears stop ringing, and the sounds from outside and in the bakery fade to background noise. She uncovers her ears and she doesn’t hear the howling laughter anymore, but instead small giggles.

Standing up, she looks over to where the giggling is coming from, and the small black cat is still at her window sill, only this time, it’s not rolling around, it’s just sitting there, looking at her while wiping tears from its eyes. That’s when her memory hits her. This isn’t a small black cat per se, it’s Plagg. The Black Cat kwami. He’s the god of destruction, and is extremely mischievous.

Groaning, she turns back to her phone, now realizing that there was a reason the alarm was going off. When her gaze settles on the phone, she releases a surprised squeak when it displays that school starts in five minutes. She rushes around her room to find the cleanest smelling clothes (somehow she can tell which clothes are cleanest much easier. It’s like her senses have been enhanced. Sure, they were before hand, but it’s just not the same). She strips off her pajama pants and hastily pulls on the dark green ankle length jeans. She looks around for the cleanest smelling shirt, and when she finds it, she bounds over to it, shucking her shirt and scooping up the black tank top. As she pulls on the tank top, she bounds over to her closet to find a blazer to go over her shirt for modesty. Finding a dark blue blazer, she pulls it off the hanger, and pulls it on. She looks over to her mirror and is shocked to see that the make-up from yesterday hasn’t been messed up, nor does it need to be touched up (that’s a first in at least a month). Looking to her hair, she decides that having a low hanging ponytail fits the clothes better than her signature pigtails. She picks up a brush to quickly comb her hair, and upon setting down the brush, she reaches for a hair tie while her other hand gathers her hair together for the ponytail. Wrapping the hair tie around her hair to keep it in a ponytail, she glances at her computer screen to check the time: only 2 minutes left. That leaves her enough time to grab a croissant for a quick breakfast.

Rushing down the steps to the kitchen, she flings open the bread cupboard door and hastily grabs a croissant. Taking a bite of the croissant, she shuts the cupboard door more gently than before and speed walks over to where her flats are. Slipping Into them, she stoops to pick up her backpack.

Slipping an arm through a strap, and slipping through the door, she heads down the stairwell while going through her mental school supply checklist: fully clothed? Check. Back pack? Check. Hasty breakfast? Check. Not nasty looking hair? Check. Cookies for Tikk- stopping dead in her tracks, she reaches up to her ears to feel for her earrings. They’re not the-

Right. She and Chat Noir/Adrien switched miraculous for a week, she realizes when she feels a weird cold on her finger while checking for her earrings and realizing that that cold is the Cat Miraculous on her finger.

She’s about to reach for the door again when she stops in her tracks again when she realizes something else. She forgot Plagg! Rushing up the stairs to her room, she bursts into her room and looks around for Plagg. He isn’t there. Wher-

“I’ve been in your jacket pocket for at least a minute now.” Says a voice from her blazer pocket after a snort. She stops in her track for the third time in 30 seconds, and glares at the kwami she has to share her life with for a week as she holds open the blazer.

“What? You wouldn’t’ve listened! You were in the state. It happens with ever holder after the first time they wake up wearing the miraculous.” Plagg says while seemingly waving off her glare. “It’ll pass. So,” Plagg zips up to her face, “before we leave, you need to get some cheese for me. I’ll starve if you don’t.”

“Okay, that would have been good to know before I fell asleep, but we can’t fix that now.” She pushes Plagg back into her pocket with a sigh. She rushes down to the refrigerator to look at the cheese selection, but quickly sets some cheese rules before opening up the fridge, “I am not bringing Camembert or any stinky cheese to school. I am not going to reek of cheese, especially now that I seem to smell things better. So, you’re just going to have to deal with cheddar.”

“Awwwwww.” Plagg whines, but she can hear that he doesn’t really mean it, completely. Cheddar isn’t the worse he could get.   
——  
Marinette flops down onto her chaise. Today, has been the worse! She arrived at school a minute before school started, which is normal. No, what started her bad day was when Lila decided to dump all her anger on her, in a reminder that she will destroy her life, take all of her friends, and get her expelled from school.

She doesn’t actually think that Lila can get her expelled. The friend thing, though? Considering that Lila has already turned her class against her once, who’s to say that she can’t do it again.

During school, she was periodically nodding off. She’s just so tired! She didn’t even get any notes. And the sun was somehow always shining down onto her, it was just so relaxing.

Alya wasn’t there to keep her awake, since she’s at home recovering from a sickness. She didn’t even manage to talk to Adrien!

To bring even more anxiety, she couldn’t find Plagg until Lunch!

Her teacher even sent her home with a note to get more sleep.

So, when she got home, her maman asked her why she was home so early. She sleepily hands her the note, and stumbles up to her room. Slipping into the house part of the joint bakery apartment, she kicks off her shoes and sets her backpack down.

Slinking up the stairs to her room, she groggily opens her trapdoor, and pulls herself into her room. For a few minutes, she just lays down on the floor, her feet hanging out of the trap door. After at least ten minutes of laying on the floor, she crawls over to her chaise, and pulls herself up onto it, flopping down onto it. Where she lays for a good 45 minutes.

She’s brought out of her sleep by the ringing of the school, letting her know that school is out. Releasing a yawn, she pulls her phone out and sets it down next to her face. She doesn’t feel like moving her fingers to text Alya, so she calls for Siri. After she tells Siri what she wants to send to Alya, and getting confirmation that Siri got everything correct, she closes her eyes once more. The sun is shining onto her back again, it’s just so, so, relaxing. She releases a content sigh, and she hear Plagg release a short chuckle.

He plops down onto the small of her back, and curls up. “It’s nice to sleep in the sunlight, right?”

She only hums in confirmation. “You know, Adrien never got to be this relaxed. Hopefully he’s having a good day with Tikki.”

Another hum in response.

After a few more minutes of sun napping, she feels the warmth shift to somewhere else in her room, and she releases a small whine of annoyance. She drags her feet to the side, and lets them drop to the floor. Reluctantly, she stands up, Plagg dropping from her back, and releasing a mewl of annoyance and surprise.

Looking around the room to where the sunlight is now, she doesn’t see where it went. Looking to the window, she sees that someone is blocking the sunlight. Growling in annoyance, she stomped over to the window and pulls it open, then yelps in surprise when she sees that Red Scarab is hanging from the window.

“What are you doing?!” She chastises him as she pulls him from the window sill into her room.

“Ah, well, I saw that you weren’t doing so well today, so I thought I could come see if I could make your day better.” He says, scratching the back of his neck nervously.

“Oh, you saw me?” Adrien noticed her?!

His eyes widen, maybe he didn’t mean to say that. “Crap, I wasn’t supposed to say that.” He sighs. “Yeah, I saw you.” Anyway, would you like to go somewhere?”

“Like a date?” She raises an eyebrow in question, relishing in how his eyes widen even more and he sputters out a response.

“I-what-no, that’s not-it’s- no. It’s just- I’ve been where you are- tired, extremely tired-not- not.” He sighs. “No, not a date. I just know how it feels to be as tired as I can clearly see you are, and I know a good place to go relax.”

“Oh, okay. Let me go tell my parents that I’m going to be doing a project and I don’t want to be disturbed.” She shoots him a smile and walks toward the trap door, but before dropping down, she turns back to him, realizing that Chat Minuit/Ladybug knows that they switched miraculous, but Marinette doesn’t. As she’s about to ask why he’s like that, she realizes that Marinette could know, they did post to the Ladyblog that they switched miraculous and they’re going to look quite a bit different. So she resolves to just telling him that he doesn’t look that bad. Which she does.

“Ah, thank you.” He bows slightly. Still the same person, just a different suit and powers.

She drops down through the trap door, but turns back again, as she pokes her head through the opening, she tells him that he should wait on the balcony. She’ll be there soon. He agrees and climbs up through her skylight to her balcony.

She goes down to the bakery, and tells her parents that she’ll be in her room working on a project and doesn’t want to be disturbed. Receiving two nods of acknowledgment, she climbs up to her room once more. Slipping into her room, she closes the trap door, and ushers Plagg into her blazer pocket, before climbing up through her skylight and closing the trap door to that.

She turns, and sees Red Scarab looking out to the city. He looks to peaceful.

“I’m ready.” She tell him, and he turns around, giving her a small smile. He wraps an arm around her waist and pulls her to him, holding her tight, making sure she won’t slip.

She wraps her arms around his frame, and they start vaulting toward the Eiffel Tower.


End file.
